An Unwanted Detour
by Fordanoia
Summary: Patrice is a senior in high school who is coming upon the end of her year when one day an inter-dimensional teleport picks her up and spits her onto Teufort during a cease-fire, landing on the BLU side. How long until she can return to her life and what will happen in the mean time?


Author's Note: So, let me just negate what might be the biggest worry here – no, there will not be any romances between the OC and the TF2 characters. The youngest character is Scout, who is probably in his 20s, and Pattie is only barely 18. I've got a general direction for this to go, and while I know it's probably not going to be outright comedy I'm still not sure what sort of category this will become.

If you have something to say I do appreciate reviews/critiques to let me know how I'm doing or if you just want to urge me to continue or touch on something specific.

**Prologue**

Everything had been moving towards this climax of effort. Deadlines fast approaching. Get whatever scholarship money she could and prepare for the final exams. The work took forever because she couldn't decide on what to do. It had to be perfect. If there was an error she wouldn't get accepted. She'd wait, checking the mailbox, only to open up a rejection letter.

The girl barely made it to the post office. Today was the deadline for a scholarship, and she had been working on and changing her paper for the application up until that morning. Getting it proofread by anybody who would read it. She had run out her front door carrying the large manila envelope in hand, with a pen and stamps in the other to adorn it. She carefully jogged down the street, making sure not to crinkle the envelope or anything inside it. Her neighborhood was not far from the town's post office, only a mile or two.

The clock had read half past four before she hastily left her house. That would be exactly thirty minutes if she walked, but what if they closed early?

She started to go into a run as she continued to think. _Thirty minutes to walk there. Twenty if I run_. Although the sun was not as fierce as a few hours ago it was still hot and she'd sweat regardless. Her thoughts frayed together, about the paper, about the likelihood of getting the scholarship, about how much time she'd have.

In the end she made it to the post office in time, double checking that she had everything, and writing the addresses on the envelope as she stood in line. Afterwards, she walked back outside. Her hair was messy from the heat and her running, but the air conditioning inside the post office building had helped to cool her down.

Her heart was beating in her chest, and she placed her hands over it, willing herself to calm down. She had shipped the envelope, and even had a tracking number to boot. _Everything is fine_.

Eventually, her heart rate slowed down, although her body still felt fried from the panic that had been coursing through her. The heat certainly wasn't helping either. She sat down on the sidewalk, warm from baking in the sun. Instead of feeling better, she quickly began to feel worse again.

Her body went beyond just feeling fried to a tingling numbness going through her body. She put her head in her hands as she started to feel dizzy. _I'm going to throw up_, she concluded. The heat and the stress, it must have gotten to her. Her ears even rang, the only sounds she could make out being dull explosions.

The dizziness began to subside only for her to feel like the sun had returned anew. "Just a couple minutes" she mumbled to herself. She'd just stay still for a little while, wait to feel better, than walk home. If this didn't pass in that time, she'd call someone to pick her up. Her mom maybe, she didn't want to waste the thought on who unless she had to resort to doing so.

As she began to readjust the ringing in her ears went down and she could hear the wind again. The wind and a pair of footsteps coming her way. One of the post office workers heading to their car she was sure. Then she wondered why she hadn't heard any cars passing by on the nearby road.


End file.
